I love a good debate...

I have never voted Green before but was seriously considering supporting Elizabeth May and specifically Lorraine Rekmans in our riding this time but now I'm not so sure. Look at their promises so far…

$6.2 billion next year: to buy carbon credits to meet Canada’s Kyoto Accord commitments. / Buying credits isn’t meeting Kyoto promises, it’s just BS and attempting to sooth a guilty conscience while fooling everyone into thinking we're making a difference. All the crap will still be in the air and the polar bears will go on starving in the heat, but we’ve planted a few trees in a rain forest somewhere so I guess it will be all OK now.

$5.2 billion next year: a carbon tax rebates for taxpayers. / What, are we supposed to feel better because we’ve created another multi-billion dollar deficit that we are now going to have to pay interest on for how many generations to come?

$16.2 billion next year: a carbon tax holiday for business. / Excuse me, business is causing most of the problems and we’re supposed to reward them for fupping us all up? No, here's the rules, here's the reasonable time limit allowed, do it or someone else will.

$5 billion next year: income splitting for all adults. / Sorry, I don’t fully understand this. What the heck is income splitting and how do I get my share of this refund? My personal opinion (and feel free to disagree and let me know) is that there should be only one income earner per household. This would prevent a huge percentage of the population from living beyond their means and depending on credit cards and also reduce the unemployment at the same time. Would this hurt me as well? Yes, but I still feel it has to be done for the good of the family and the economy.

$ 8.6 billion over three years: to help relieve student debt and increase funding to the provinces for post-secondary education. / OK, education is important but please explain to me why it costs $30,000 a year to attend university anyway. Cut out all the useless sport programs that serve no purpose and you’ll save millions that could be put into real education and not game playing.

As I said, feel free to disagree and tell me so because I like a good argument, win or lose.

Oh, and let me know if you want to get into the +$80,000,000,000.00 (not a made up number) that our buddy Mr. Dion has promised to spend. What are we to do? Do YOU want to pay taxes to cover interest payments on that kind of bill?

Oh, for another Pierre Trudeau who was a true scholar and not afraid to do what had to be done while saying to hell with what anyone thought about him personally. Yes, I was a Trudeaumaniac and I'm proud to say so. Unfortunately the politicians today are not of the same calibre that he was.


September 22: OK, a little education from my wife explained the obvious about income splitting to me. I knew what it was all along and must have just been too tired when I wrote the original note last night. At least I can use that as an excuse, can't I?